Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Starlog signs off!

After 374 issues, Starlog magazine has called it a day. The current owners of the magazine have ended the printed edition of the sci-fi, media and comics genre publication. What now passes for Starlog will continue to be available only as an online e-publication.

I loved Starlog as a teenager and tried never to miss an issue in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I had amassed a small mountain of Starlog magazines, when I finally stopped picking it up too many years ago to actually remember when my last purchase occurred.

Like many other folks who have posted their reactions to this "death", I didn't even realize that Starlog was still being published.

Back in the days when the Internet wasn't around, its coverage of the Star Trek continuations, exploding Star Wars phenomena and other genre stuff from TV shows to comics and beyond was a real treat for fandom. Thanks Starlog, for keeping us in the mix over the past 33 years.

How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!